Stuffing my face with hirata buns – Flesh and buns

Rock and Roll Bone Daddies founder Ross Shonhan does it again, opening his second venture Flesh and Buns. Located in the Eastern Fringes of West end, Earlham Street Covent Garden. Flesh and bones was already a hot topic on Twitter that week and my friend managed to grab some seats.

It took a while for me to spot the place, on the black wooden door the tongue in cheek name “Flesh and Buns” text painted with the very familiar logo also used for “Bones Daddies”. The 150-seat Izakaya-style restaurant situated below street level is a lot bigger then bone daddies.

The menu features a lot small plates to choose from such as sushi, sashimi etc, to design your own sharing platter and of course the main thing is the hirata bun, which are served with a choice of “flesh” (the meat), along with a sauce, and lettuce.

For starters I choose soft shell crab tempura, a delightful firm favourite of mine. The spider legs overlapped one another in a light batter and came with a creamy jalapeno mayo. Not an ounce of oil dripped from the crab, and the lime gave it the extra kick.

My friend picked tuna Tataki, came out on a well-presented plate, thinly sliced tuna, lying over the sauce, with grape, chilli and coriander sprinkled on top. The tuna was chewy, slithered inside my mouth, I failed to taste any of the fiery chilli, and the rest of the flavours left a refreshing after taste.

For our hirata buns, I choose the flat iron steak and my friend had the crispy duck leg as recommended by our server for the night.

My flat iron steak came in perfectly formed slices, the bloody juice still running below, glazed with BBQ sauce and a pile of pickled shimeji beside the sauce dish. The temptation by just looking at the meat alone would leave anyone gulping.

The sauce had sharp vinegar after taste, and I packed my tiny hirata bun with the meat, shimeji and deletable sauce.

After our table was cleared, we couldn’t just leave without some desserts. The S’more is a traditional campfire treat consisting of roasted marshmallow sandwich between crackers. In this case, a tabletop clay grill came with 2 marshmallow sticks and some Matcha green tea flavoured biscuits. The green tea biscuits were absolutely delicious with a strong cheesecake flavour. I made a total mess with the marshmallow as it fell off the stick and left a big mark on the table.

The “Bone Daddies sundae” was a real disappointment to me; firstly the green tea ice cream just tasted icy and lacked any green tea flavour. There were no blueberries in sight and it just failed to please my tongue.

Overall I did like the food in Flesh and Buns and I think it makes a perfect interactive meal with friends. Making your own hirata buns and roasting marshmallows over the s’more fire tabletop. However the “flesh and buns” comes with only two buns and will no way fill you up. Additional buns comes at a price of £2.50, with the “flesh and buns” starting from £13-24 and starters from £2.50 – £11. The meal can come up to a hefty bill if your not careful.